Post-Game Grades: Pacers nix Porzingis-less Knicks

The Indiana Pacers shoot an even 50.00 percent against the reeling new York Knicks, come away winners to close-out the season series 2-1

Sunday evening, the Indiana Pacers took on the New York Knicks at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and didn’t run into too much trouble after splitting the previous two contests against the New York Knicks.

The Pacers, coming off a thrilling, topsy-turvy win against the Celtics on Friday, were looking for an easy win against the Knicks – 11th in the East and coming into the game on a five-game losing skid, playing just their second game after last week’s major-bummer season-ending injury to franchise player, Kristaps Porzingis.

The first quarter was high-scoring, ending with the Pacers down 36 – 37. Enes Kanter –questionable prior to Sunday’s game after a truly nasty mouth injury – had 11 points and six rebounds in the period, easily muscling away the slighter Myles Turner, but the Pacers did enough to keep things close.

The second unit struggled to start the second quarter. The Pacers eventually stepped up with a 14-2 run, but the Knicks were quick to answer with eight straight points of their own. Pretty soon after that, Victor Oladipo tied Ron Artest’s franchise-record 40-straight games with a steal, got two more steals, and did this:

https://twitter.com/Pacers/status/962827089744408577

The Pacers were up by six points at the half – the resurgent Bojan Bogdanovic with 15, Vic with 13 – and starting to feel themselves.

Kanter came out swinging to start the third, frustrating the Pacers with his knack for the offensive rebound – already one of the thorns in Indiana’s side – but Dipo was right there to answer, snagging a few more steals and doing some further showing-out in anticipation of next weekend’s dunk contest. The Pacers continued to push the lead against a dispirited Knicks squad whose first-half shooting thudded back to earth, but NY finished things on a solid 7-0 run, cutting a once 20-point lead to just ten, 94 – 84.

The Knicks refused to go away – primarily because they are contractually obligated to play all four quarters, but also because they are a professional basketball team and Kyle O’Quinn is a strong dude. They cut the lead to seven, but Lance Stephenson was NOT about to let his hometown Knicks come back against his adopted Pacers – hitting a couple timely treys, assisting on a Thaddeus Young bucket, playing some air guitar, and upsetting aforementioned strong dude, Kyle O’Quinn. The Knicks continued to attack, but the Pacers held them at Myles’ bionic arm-length, and Vic provided the eventual dagger.

But, the question remains: When will All-Star Weekend finally adopt the much-needed Air Guitar Riff-Off, sponsored by AND1?

The Good: Bojan continues his much-improved shooting, going 4-for-7 from deep tonight, and finishing with 20 points. Sure feels nice to get the real Bogie back. Never go back into hiding. Winning the rebound battle 54 to 45 helped a bunch, too.

The Bad: Though Domantas Sabonis had ten boards, his 2-for-11 shooting might’ve sunk the Pacers on any other night. Lance’s four turnovers stung.

MVP: Vic’s stat line tonight was WILD and low-key on quadruple-double watch alert throughout: 30 points, 8 bounds, 9 assists, SIX steals, and a block. A Pacer hasn’t put up a stat line like that since Ron Artest back in March of 2002. He did need 24 shots to get that 30, but getting to the charity stripe ten times – and the rest of the line – kinda makes up for that, don’t ya think?

LVP: Nobody really deserves the dreaded LVP tonight, but the Knicks’ Tim Hardaway Jr. needed 17 shots to score 17 (3-for-10 from deep), and new-addition, Emmanuel Mudiay, struggled in his Knicks debut, and needed 14 shots to get his 14. And when you’re discussing new additions and sadness, it is natural for one to think of New Edition and sadness.

(Possibly a top-50 song of all time, but I say hyperbolic stuff like that all the time)

X-Factor: 

Next: The big men in the mid-range

Next up, the Pacers get a couple days off, then head to Brooklyn to take on the Nets on Wednesday, February 14, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Whether you’re alone on Valentine’s Day or not, the Pacers and 8 Points, 9 Seconds got you.